Business as Unusual

These are scary times for landscape designers whose practices overlap both the creative service and construction industries. Anyone in my business who tells you they are thriving is not being entirely truthful. The sad state of the global economy that is a financial disaster for so many is not what I'm writing about here. The media has scared consumers who do have the means and the need for our services into hunkering down, not spending any money and worst of all believing that they 'shouldn't'.

I consider myself to be fairly typical of landscape designers who are out there now. I have work, just not the amount or size of work I've had in the past. I am lucky to have loyal clients who come back again and again as well as some new ones who are willing to spend on new projects.

Creativity is needed in our business so that it isn't business as usual, it is time for business to be unusual. We need to educate our clients about the intrinsic worth of what we provide and make it invaluable to them. We need to enhance their lives in every way possible--drawing them outside into the larger world so that our services become what they are willing to spend money on.

This summer is the 40th anniversary of Woodstock and I am reminded of the lyrics that very wise Joni Mitchell wrote all those years ago:

We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's baragin
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

Miss R. is Angry

Do people refer to their interior designers as their cleaning services or maids? No. Do people refer to fashion designers as seamstresses? No, again.

Then why do people insist on calling a landscape designer, a landscaper? Not just in conversation, but also in print and on the web. I am not the one who mows your lawn, or blows your leaves, or mulches your garden beds. I am not a landscaper.

I design thoughtful outdoor spaces that compel you to spend more time outside and enrich your lives. I design gardens that delight your senses and bring you joy. I design. I don't mow, blow or mulch. I am not a landscaper, I am a landscape designer.

Winter vs. Summer

Much has been said about the merits of the garden in winter. I agree that there is magic in the winter landscape--just not mine.

I leave the grasses and plants with interesting seed heads to winter over, I've added some evergreen structure, plants with interesting bark and other accessories. Unlike the highly considered and tightly designed gardens I provide for my clients, my garden is a constant experiment, it is a haven or death row for leftover plants, a tasting menu for deer, and generally organic in its upkeep and its lack of a plan. I think I still have to experiment some more with its winter interest...

Winter the morning after another inch of light snow

High Summer texture and color

Some Days You Just Need to Bloom

It's January, I'm getting tired of the cold, the grey, and the dark. I was having a rotten day when I stopped a client's garden last summer. This combination of clematis and roses we had planted the summer before made my day better then, and its picture makes my day better now. Enjoy.